ICYMI: One Week Out and We’re Still Talking About Josh Hawley’s Failure to Do his Job

COLUMBIA, Mo. — With only a week until Election Day, Josh Hawley just can’t shake concerns about his tumultuous Attorney General’s office. On KCUR’s “Statehouse Blend” podcast yesterday, Brian Ellison and Allison Kite echoed recent reports that Hawley’s office is full of “disarray” and “turnover” that is leading to higher settlements — at the expense of Missouri taxpayers.

“Missouri voters are looking for someone who can deliver results that make their lives better. Unfortunately for Josh Hawley, his record speaks for itself: he has failed to take his job as Attorney General seriously and he’s done nothing to show he deserves a promotion.”

Missouri DemocraticParty Deputy Communications Director Brooke Goren

BRIAN ELLISON: Over the weekend the New York Times ran a report about Josh Hawley’s administration of the attorney general’s office and a lot of people familiar with the work of that office were very critical in that report – said there was a lot of disarray there. What have you learned about that?

ALLISON KITE: Yeah, so I actually have the story in front of me here today. So there were a few charges in that report. He shut down one division, there’s been a lot of turnover. There was one figure that said that settlements have drastically increased because he doesn’t have enough experienced lawyers to protect the state, so the state has had to pay out a lot more settlements.

BRIAN ELLISON: Some criticisms too of how he handled the investigation of the governor’s office.

ALLISON KITE: Correct, yes. There was a charge in the story that he had been willing to work with the governor’s office on limiting the interviews to 15 minutes of the governor’s staff on the investigation into the staff’s use of Confide –